Made our first music video last week! Well…actually…more a slideshow…though it turned out great!
I took Beautiful Autumn and using Windows Movie Maker, added some pictures to convey the words. Seems a simple thing, and perhaps it is, but I actually stayed up ALL night working on it. Arielle went to sleep around 10pm and about 7am the next morning, she came walking out of the bedroom and I had a smile on my face as I’d JUST finished the video.
Searched the net for hours finding relevant pictures, and had to be mindful there were no watermarks on them. We’re a couple of broke musicians, and the last thing we need is a lawsuit because we used an image we’re not supposed to. Anyway…the Movie Maker was actually very intuitive, and I simply imported our song, and then started placing pics where they went along with the lyrics. Once in place…just magnified everything to fine tune/timing, and added some Title/Credit captions. And walla…our first music video. 😉
I know an actual video of us playing live would be cool..and we’ll be working on that down the road…but there was something very interesting about splicing together pictures to represent lyrics. These are some of the cooler picture ideas I came up with:
“Energy dances into form”~ It shows placid waters formed into an enormous tidal wave.
“Everything is one”~ I took a magnified picture of a single drop of water rippling the water’s surface, and followed with a picture of a black hole in space. Just an interesting connection to see that both look almost identical..and it really brings to mind the vast scales our universe works within.
I remember being 7 years old, reading “The Gunslinger” by Steven King…and at the end, when Roland finally catches the man in black, they have a sit down in which the wizard gives Roland an amazing out-of-body experience. His soul pulls out from his body, rises until the landscape around is model scale, higher until he sees the earth (after it had “moved on” of course)…further up and back until Roland sees the entire universe laid out in front of him. But he kept going…faster and faster…and as he ascends, the entire universe and all it’s endless galaxies ultimately are just the molecular level for a single blade of purple grass…in some other world…with some other laws binding it. Talk about a revelation for a seven year old….such an amazing shift of size and proportion. Just as…within each single droplet of water, there may be infinite worlds.
A very humbling idea, but one that has infused itself into my worldview. When people talk about feeling the “awe” of God…a manly bearded face never did much for me…but this idea of size and proportion has always awed me. “all encompassing, all powerful, all knowing”…far beyond man and our simpleton anthropomorphism.
I also really like how the last sequence of “rain and the dirt and a million lost souls” turned out…and think there is an embedded power via contrast between the cubicle-imprisoned souls and the sun shining down on a single reaching flower. I’ve always really appreciated juxtaposition…and with music backing….it is a powerful message.
I went a little “out there” with the end sequence…and was reaching for an idea that is perhaps beyond my rational thought structure but not beyond my intuition. Energy in all things….
our thoughts create an actual field of energy that can be measured…and that interact with the world at large. There are energy fields radiating from within our planet…and the atmosphere is saturated with wireless data…which itself is simply waves of energy. Then the interconnecting energy fields of distinct planets, of solar systems, entire universes….it all looks very similar to the dancing energy structure of a single atom (third to last picture). Perhaps our macro is simply the micro of a much large plane…and in the same light…perhaps there ARE truly worlds within each drop of water and blade of grass. Eternity all around us…and ultimately…IN us…when we learn to see from behind our mind and KNOW that there is an indwelling soul that did not begin with “me”/”us”…and will not end there.
I placed one from of our first video for twice as long as any other, and here it is:
We simply want to share a small glimpse of beauty and perhaps a little truth with the world…and in these times of ubiquitous advertising…thoughts broken down to 140 characters or less…I hope you will see the need for such counterbalance.
Please help us on our journey. “Liking” our video actually does help get it to more ears and eyes, as do any other form of social network support.
At the heart of me, this whole electronic world is strange and perhaps a little alienating…but if that is the way we communicate to one another in these accelerated times…then I choose to do so under the flag of beauty and hope.
Raise your own flag…help us make a difference. There may not be any immediate answers for the world at large…but anything that promotes wisdom, joy, peace, or beauty is a small step towards a better world. If only through you.
Namaste.
Logan Dean~ Twilight Panorama
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